BY ERIC MATOME KGOMO
BELFAST/MASOYI: The police management in Mpumalanga urge parents and guardians not to leave their children unattended to, following the fire incidents that killed three children in two separate tragedies. In one of the incidents, a three-year-old girl perished in a house fire that engulfed the house in the evening of Monday 19 April 2021, at Siyathuthuka Township in Belfast. “Reports indicate that the victim and her siblings, aged seven and nine, were left alone by their mother in the shack where they stay. When she returned from where she was, she found the shack engulfed in flames and immediately called for help,” said Colonel Donald Mdhluli, Mpumalanga Provincial Police Spokesperson.
Mdhluli said the other two children managed to escape the fire unharmed, except the three-year old who perished during the incident. “A case of culpable homicide was opened against the woman with an additional charge of child neglect,” he said. Mdhluli added that in a similar incident, occurred on Friday 16 April 2021, at Masoyi, two young girls aged seven and eight respectively, burned to death also in a house fire after being left unattended to.
“According to information at police disposal, on the said day, the two children, who are said to be cousins, were asleep in the house at Jerusalem, in Masoyi outside White River whilst their parents were away. Their uncle was visiting neighbours at the time and it is said that he was notified by one of the neighbours that a spotlight at the house where the children were asleep, was off. He then went to investigate and on his arrival, he realised that the bedroom where the girls were sleeping was on fire,” informed Mdhluli.
He said the uncle reportedly called other neighbours to assist to put out the fire, however the flames were too intense and the girls were burned to death. “An inquest docket was opened and is currently being probed. A charge of child neglect will be added,” he said.
Furthermore, Mdhluli said in another incident, a 23-year-old woman was recently arrested in Bushbuckridge for child neglect, after she was reportedly left her three children, aged four and five as well as a nine-month old baby unattended between the evening of Friday, 09 April and the morning of Saturday 10 April 2021. “Her family then thought that she was missing and the matter was brought before the attention of police. A search party for her was conducted and she was later found at a certain tavern on Friday, 16 April 2021, after information surfaced from members of the public that she was seen in one of the tarvens at Violet Bank near Bushbuckridge. The woman could not be named to protect the identity of the children,” detailed Mdhluli. He said a case of child neglect was opened against the woman and she appeared before the Bushbuckridge Magistrate’s court on Monday 19 April and will appear again soon, pending further police investigation.
“Police management in the province urge parents as well as guardians to play their role in order to prevent such incidents from occurring,” Mdhluli said.
